The river
April 1, 2010
The Luangwa river in flood is something to behold. The sky meets with the river and creates the most incredible vistas of cloud and colour. The dry season is approaching now and soon the river will be back to its sandy safari-season state. A few images while it lasts…
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Rain, rain and more rain..
March 4, 2010
I’m back in the Valley and it has hardly stopped raining since I got here. The river is in full flood – a huge contrast from the dry season. Here are a few aerial shots from the last couple days.
Storm breaking over the Muchinga escarpment
Luangwa river
Floodwater
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Exhibition closes
December 20, 2009
It has been a very busy month for me but my exhibition has now come to an end and things are quietening down just in time for Christmas. The exhibition was a great success – it was titled ‘Living Luangwa’ and featured 50 of my favourite images from my last 4 years work in the Luangwa valley. Here are a few of the most popular photographs although seeing them at web size doesn’t do them justice – printed large, framed and lit well makes all the difference..
Hollywood
Clash of the Titans
Kaingo
Broken Mopane
Kakuli
Milky way
Making waves
Geronimo!
Wet feet
Lashes
Skimming
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
The dry season is here
April 18, 2009
The rains have come to an abrupt end and there is a definite chill in the air now. Here are a couple shots of the river at the height of the rains and again in the dry season. The contrast between wet and dry is quite incredible. I have left the valley for a break before the season begins and will return in a couple weeks once it is dry enough to drive in again.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Rain, rain and more rain
March 19, 2009
It has been raining incessantly for the last week which hasn’t been very good for photography. I have been able to get out on the river a couple times when there has been a gap in the weather – I even managed a microlight flight with John on Monday. As you can see from the photo the river is full to bursting again which is unusual for this time of year.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
Before and after
February 10, 2009
The river is full to bursting now so it is great to be able to get out on the boat at last. I took a number of images of the river in the dry season last year with the idea that I would take another lot from the same position in the rains. It has been a little more difficult than I thought as when the river is really full like this it washes away huge chunks of the bank and I often find that the spot where I was standing last year now no longer exists! Anyway here is a first attempt, more of these to come.
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photograp
The dry season is here
April 18, 2008
There is a definite chill in the air this morning and the sky is cloudless and gloriously blue. It is as if someone has pulled the plug on the valley and suddenly the whole area is drying out. Much of the soil here has a very high clay content and as it dries it cracks up into wonderful patterns and abstracts.
The river is now too low for us to use the boat and so we are stranded here again. It is incredible how the rainy season completely wipes out the roads so that each season they need to be rebuilt. We don’t have a grader here and have to rely on ZAWA (Zambia Wildlife Authority) to grade the road in from Mfuwe. Hopefully this will be done by the end of the month or early May…
Content Copyright Patrick Bentley Photography
